Twenty-Seventeen: The Year of Me – 3 Steps to Help Find Your Passion So You Can Live a Better Life

Last week during our weekly First Time Chat I share with the viewers what the goal of our 2017 series “Twenty-Seventeen: The Year of Me” is all about as well as some homework to get everyone started. I know the title of the series may be a little confusing. I’m not suggesting that you solely focus on yourself this year and throw all caution to the wind ignoring your responsibilities. I mean this isn’t about that at all. Please don’t decide to quit your job, leave your family or anything extreme like that, however, if you are feeling that way perhaps it’s time to find someone to talk with.

What is Twenty-Seventeen: The Year of Me?

In order to take care of anyone you really have to be taking care of yourself. I say this all of the time but there’s a reason why flight attendants tell you during a flight’s safety procedures presentation that you need to put on your oxygen mask before you help the person next to you. You’re no good to anyone if you can’t breathe. I think the same can be said of motherhood or any kind of caretaking role really. You have to be taking care of yourself, mind, body and soul before you can take care of another person. If you deny yourself of care, are you really giving your best self to those around you?

What does caring for yourself look like?

The first step is finding something that you’re passionate about, something that fills you up and this is something that you ultimately do for yourself. It’s how you’re wired and because you’re fulfilling your purpose in life you find joy in doing whatever this passion is. If you believe in God like I do I like to compare it to the verse in Jeremiah 29, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I know it’s really hard to think in big terms like THE PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE so we’re going to start very small.

3 Steps to Help Find Your Passion So You Can Live a Better Life

Think back to a time before you had kids or any responsibilities that allowed you to focus on yourself. What activities or hobbies made you feel alive, happy, and filled up. Maybe you were a runner and whenever your feet hit the pavement you felt alive. You could easily run six miles every day and afterward, whatever was happening in your life, would just slip away and all would be right in your world. Perhaps you really loved being around people, interacting with them and encouraging them. Since you’ve become a mom you’re kind of off in la la land (no, not the movie) and the people you interact with? Well, while they are adorable they do not have anything to say other than “goo-goo ga-ga” which doesn’t lend much to the conversation. Perhaps you used to read a book a week and now the only book you’re reading weekly is Margaret Brown’s Good Night Moon? You feel like you can literally feel your brain becoming mushier by the minute. What activity used to make you feel alive?

Devote at least 20 minutes every day to this task. We’re starting out small because it always seems like whenever you’re taking time for yourself, inevitably, somebody NEEDS something and they needed it YESTERDAY. There are 1440 minutes in a day, trust me, there is time for you to devote 20 minutes.

Make an appointment and do not miss it. I think this is probably the biggest detriment in finding your passion and sticking with it. There will always be laundry, missed naps, teething babies, whiny children, dishes that need to be washed and food that needs to be prepped. There isn’t another day you can start because there isn’t going to be a perfect time where everything aligns flawlessly. Tomorrow is not a new day, so you might as well start today.

What do you think? Are you up to the challenge? Tell me below what your passion is that you have determined is going to be the one thing you do for 20 minutes every day!

As the creator of the lifestyle blog and book, Me Before Mom, Bert supports millennial moms facing the challenges and changes of motherhood. Me Before Mom is an online community that offers support through real life stories, encouraging advice, and answers to questions about how a woman maintains herself during this self-sacrificial time of parenthood. Stories from Bert Anderson have helped women across the globe through the Huffington Post, Today’s Parent, and on the Harry show. Whether weathering the first year of motherhood or walking through the later stages of motherhood, Bert has helped many continue to find herself while still in the throes of motherhood. Purchase your copy of Me Before Mom: Putting Your Oxygen Mask on First today!